Health Disparities: A Case Study

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DX: Health disparities
Imagine America as a patient. A provider would assess the patient for normal and abnormal findings diagnose and treat the abnormals. The finding that many Americans have negative health outcomes related to social and economic disadvantages is abnormal. It can be diagnosed and treated. The diagnosis of these abnormal findings is health disparities. Health disparities are measured by specific differences in health between populations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). The pathophysiology is health inequity: poor status due to a lack of health resources and social inequity (CDC, 2014). The etiologic agents would be the social determinants. These are inter-related social and economic factors that influence …show more content…
Dr. Cynthia M. Jones applies several ethical and moral principles to establish that health disparities are a moral malady and to not address them, would be morally wrong as well (2010). The WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health concluded in 2008 that the social conditions in which people are born, live, and work are the single most important determinant of one's health status (2008). Social determinants represent 75% of the influence on a population’s health and are responsible for differences in health outcomes, compared to 25% that is generated from health behaviors, genetics and biology (CDC, 2014). Moreover, health disparities impose a significant economic burden on society. The cost of health care disparities is estimated to be over $300 billion a year (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2012). Between the economic, social and moral implications of health disparities, this is the most important health problem for society to …show more content…
Stakeholders who should be most invested, may be uninformed or indifferent. Many don’t realize health inequity affects them. This is a major contribution to the problem. A survey in 2010 found less than 50% of Americans believe that African Americans are worse off than Whites in terms of life expectancy or infant mortality (Benz, Espinosa, Welsh, & Fontes, 2011) despite a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report that identifies infant mortality rates for African Americans were more than double that of Whites that same year (MacDorman & Mathews, 2014). Providers have also shown to be unaware of disparities. A 2005 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed roughly half of physicians did not recognize, or agree, that minority patients received lower quality care than white patients (The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation [RWJF], 2007). Not recognizing a problem makes it difficult to
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